HILLSBORO, OREGON (USA) – January 5, 2009 – TriQuint Semiconductor, Inc (NASDAQ: TQNT), a leading RF front-end product manufacturer and foundry services provider, experienced a minor incident in its Oregon factory today. Thankfully there were no injuries, nor was there an environmental impact.

TriQuint’s Oregon factory was shut-down for planned annual maintenance activities. A small team was preparing for the factory restart, and repouring process solutions. Once an employee realized chemicals were incorrectly mixed, he notified his supervisor, at which time they evacuated the small staff in the factory, and immediately notified the local fire department. The county Hazardous Materials (HazMat) team came on-site to aid in case a situation developed.

Details on the Incident:

The employee was experienced in the process and noticed a slight foam bubble in the solution¹, which was not normal. No plume or gas cloud occurred. TriQuint’s HazMat clean-up vendor disposed of the solution, and the ventilation system cycled any residuals. (The equipment’s ventilation system traps any exhaust into water that is captured in a container and properly disposed offsite. The system is designed to do exactly what it did.)

The county HazMat team observed TriQuint’s processes, videotaped the incident, and complimented TriQuint on how the situation was handled. The HazMat team recommended TriQuint report the incident to the DEQ. The conversation with the DEQ lasted only 30 seconds, since there was no environmental impact. More info can be found in the Hillsboro Fire Department’s report by Storm Smith, PIO.

TriQuint Principals

TriQuint is committed to the health and safety of its employees and the environment. In addition to meeting and, in many cases exceeding, the local, state and federal environmental laws related to handling of chemicals, TriQuint remains continuously vigilant in its pursuit of safety. Employees are trained in the safe and effective handling of chemical materials and special systems are in place for quick issue resolution.

¹ The chemicals mixed were “common” metal plating solutions used in many industries. They do contain low levels of cyanide in the gold solution (2%) and low levels of sulfuric acid in the tin solution (5%). Fifteen gallons of gold plating solution and six gallons of tin plating solution were combined. The solutions had low levels of cyanide and sulfuric acid in them, not a straight mixture of cyanide and sulfuric acid, which was incorrectly reported in some initial articles by the media.

FACTS ABOUT TRIQUINT
Founded in 1985, we “Connect the Digital World to the Global Network”™ by supplying high-performance RF modules, components and foundry services to the world's leading communications companies. Specifically, TriQuint supplies products to four out of the top five cellular handset manufacturers, and is a leading gallium arsenide (GaAs) supplier to major defense and space contractors. TriQuint creates standard and custom products using advanced processes that include gallium arsenide, surface acoustic wave (SAW) and bulk acoustic wave (BAW) technologies to serve diverse markets including wireless handsets, base stations, broadband communications and military. TriQuint is also lead researcher in a 3-year DARPA program to develop advanced gallium nitride (GaN) amplifiers. TriQuint, as named by Strategy Analytics in August 2008, is the number-three worldwide leader in GaAs devices and the world’s largest commercial GaAs foundry. TriQuint has ISO9001 certified manufacturing facilities in Oregon, Texas, and Florida and a production plant in Costa Rica; design centers are located in North America and Germany. Visit TriQuint at www.triquint.com/rf to receive new product information and to register for our newsletters.

Media Contact:
Brandi Frye
Director, Corporate Marketing Communications
TriQuint Semiconductor, Inc
Tel: +1 503.615.9488
Mobile : +1.503.780.2318
E-mail: bfrye@tqs.com